For the Love of Yoga with Nish the Fish

As you approach Mā Kālī, you will likely encounter many transgressive (and for some people of a certain temperament, even disturbing) practices. Things like animal sacrifice (Bali) and offerings of meat, fish, liquor, intoxicants and sex (pañca-makāras) are featured quite strongly in some of the primary sources on Mā Kālī & Her worship and this has created a mixture of fascination and aversion, superstition and misunderstanding and in some cases, an obstacle to approaching Mā and ultimately realizing Her. As such, in this short exposition, we say a few things about these Kaula/Vāma mārga-type offerings, picking up the thread for our last two conversations on the subject from last week: Substituting the Pañcamakāras, Forbidden Offerings & Kaula Elements in the Vijñāna-Bhairava TantraJai Vāme! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Right now in our How To Do Tāntrik Pūjā lecture series, we're exploring the topic of Mānasa-pūjā, mental worship, the process of internalizing everything that we would otherwise be doing outwardly. This approach is of course very, very helpful when it comes to things like pañca-makāras or even bali (animal sacrifice) because although these things are very much part of Kālī pūjā, the external observance of these things might not be appropriate in some contexts and certainly won't suit the temperament of many practitioners! The solution for such practitioners? Omit it/substitute it or internalize it! In this talk, we discuss what the pañca-makāras (the 5 forbidden offerings) are and make a points about for whom this practice could be beneficial and for whom it could, perhaps potentially be ruinous! Given all the fascination (as well as superstition) around this topic and of course, given its centrality in the Kaula marga and the worship of deities like Mā Kālī, it's worth taking a swipe at in a mature and grounded way! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Today on the very sacred and auspicious day of Nāga Pañcami, the day when we honor serpents in the holy month of śrāvana, the sacred month of Lord Śiva, I felt it would be wonderful to contemplate Mā (śakti) as the all-pervasive enlivening/animating energy that is in all things and IS all things. This energy or life-force is inseparable from Consciousness, the all-pervasive reality that in this tradition we call Śiva. But what does it mean to say that? In this lecture, we point to how Śiva is not just quiescent, formless, impersonal Reality but that He is always endowed with ever-free and ever-blissful self-reflection (vimarśa) which in this tradition we call Śakti (i.e Mā Kālī) and that this self-reflection manifests as the eternal triad of the powers of willing (icchā-śakti), knowing (jñāna-śakti) and doing (kriyā-śakti) which is in effect what this entire universe is! This universe is God reflecting on Herself; it is the blazing forth of God's enlivened energy! For God IS Herself nothing but enlivened and enlivening Energy! We get this very radical Śakta view that everything is alive from Somānanda, the great Tāntrik master who might have been the first to articulate, in philosophical terms, this pantheistic pan-animism of Consciousness-Energy. In this lecture I argue that Somānanda's revelation in Śiva-drshti is the foundational philosophy of Śaktism, the view that everything is Mā, living, pulsating, throbbing Power! Also, in this talk, I share some insights from a conversation I had with Pujya Swami Bhajanananda Saraswati at the Kali Mandir in Laguna Beach regarding Animism and its link to Śakta theory and practice. Pujya Swamiji proposed a diachronic approach to understanding these traditions and in this view, Śaktism might be most universal of all traditions! So we attempt to argue for this also. Anyway since Nāga-pañcami is also a day to contemplate Kundalinī Śakti (or the "Serpent Power" as Arthur Avalonji beautifully called Her), this discussion on Power, Vitality and Śakti in the context of Śaiva Non-Duality seemed very fitting! Jai Nageśvarī Devī Ki Jai! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

What is the most important spiritual resource? Since spirituality is the process of going inward, of checking the natural inclination towards externalization, naturally, the most important thing we can learn how to do is to take responsibility for our inner world! This is essentially what spirituality is. When our inner world is taken care of, when our mental state is cultivated and established in the highest frequency, the outer world (which is really nothing more than an experience arising in the mind) will follow suit. The moment we sort our mind out, it seems that the whole picture changes, the outer world transforms and suddenly we understand what it means to "be the change we want to see in the world" since the world in nothing but a reflection of my own mind and to change the mind is to change the world-image that appears! But having understood this, the next question must be: how do I take responsibility for my inner state? What tools can I use for creating an oasis of peace, joy and blessedness within which is not at all conditioned by "external" events? Of course there is a whole slew of practices and techniques for achieving this end since is the most important thing we can do I spiritual life. However, one particular practice that I wanted to highlight that is so good for just this sort of thing is mānasa pūjā, the Inner Worship of the Deity.As such, here is another class in our How To Do Tantrik Ritual series exploring the sacred science of inner/mental worship. Here's the mantra we used:hṛtpadmamāsanaṁ dadyāt sahasrāracyutāmṛtaiḥ।pādyaṁ caraṇayordadyāt manastvarghyaṁ nivedayet॥tenāmṛtenācamanīyaṁ snānīyaṁ tena ca smṛtam।ākāśatattvaṁ vastraṁ syāt gandhaḥ syāt gandhatattvakam॥cittaṁ prakalpayet puṣpaṁ dhūpaṁ prāṇān prakalpayet।tejastattvaṁ ca dīpārthaṁ naivedyaṁ syāt sudhāmbudhiḥ॥anāhatadhvanirghaṇṭā vāyutattvaṁ ca cāmaram।sahasrāraṁ bhavecchatraṁ śabdatattvaṁ ca gītakam॥nṛtyamindriyakarmāṇi cāñcalyaṁ manasastathā।sumekhalāṁ padmamālāṁ puṣpaṁ nānāvidhaṁ tathā॥amāyādyairbhāvapuṣpairarcayet bhāvagocaram।amāyamanahaṅkāramarāgamamadaṁ tathā॥amohakamadambhaṁ ca adveṣākṣobhakau tathā।amātsaryamalobhaṁ ca daśapuṣpaṁ vidurbudhāḥ॥ahiṁsā paramaṁ puṣpaṁ puṣpamindriyanigrahaḥ।dayāpuṣpaṁ kṣamāpuṣpaṁ jñānapuṣpaṁ ca pañcamam॥iti pañcadaśairbhāvapuṣpaiḥ sampūjayet śivām॥Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

In this talk, we continue to unpack the Somānanda's Radical Non-Dual Revelation to show how Consciousness, the Absolute Reality which you yourself are is endowed desire, innately creative and always active. Also, we discover the profound implications of such a view on our spiritual lives and on our day to day interactions with the world!You'll recall that in  our last conversation we compared a few different approach to non-duality to show how many non-dual traditions prefer a more quietistic approach where the Absolute is conceived of as perfectly silent and perfectly still without any desire or dynamism whatsoever. And that's perfectly valid! Notice however that this idealistic, world-negating approach might work for some people (especially monastics) but not necessarily for everyone and certainly not for those who desire to engage with the world and act on their inspirations and desires for creative expression! As such, as an alternative to the more popular and mainstream non-dual presentations of Classical Advaita Vedanta and Classical Buddhism, we present the Tāntrik approach which argues for the innate dynamism of the Absolute such that the world is re-affirmed, desires are divinized and life is given a positive spin! On this view, the world is no longer seen as an illusion to be dispelled or as an error to be corrected; life is no longer seen as suffering but rather as innately blissful since all this is verily the shining forth of ever-free, ever-blissful Consciousness! PS: much of this conversation is also in dialogue with some of the observations we were making here in our What is the Sound of Absolute Silence? | Bagalā Jayanti talk where I argued that speech is always inherent even in silence! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Non-duality is the profound view that only one Reality exists and that you are essentially That! This unitive vision of one-ness, this harmony of all things resonates so deeply in the human psyche, perhaps because we all of us sense the underlying unity beneath and beyond all seeming diversity! But as you know, there are many different kinds of Non-Dual traditions all around the world, each articulating this revelation of one-ness in different ways owing to the unique experiences of the sages to whom such revelations occurred. And because we are all different and because we all respond to different things at different times of our spiritual journey, its nice to compare some of the different non-dual traditions that have emerged in the Indian subcontinent so see what they each have to offer. We have something to learn from every tradition, after all! In this talk, after comparing a few different schools of Advaita, I make a case for Somānanda's vision: an Advaita of radical agency, a kind of theistic monism that seeks to be as inclusive as possible of everything without reducing anything to void or illusion! This kind of Tāntrik non-duality, which we will unpack together over the course of the next few lectures, uniquely offers a world-affirming, life-affirming, action-oriented one-ness! This talk is part of a series on Somānanda and includes talks like Somānanda's Radical Non-Dual RevelationRace, Gender, Environment & Ethics in Non-Duality | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra, Verse 105 Is My Coffee Mug Conscious? | Paramārthasāra, Verse 37 andPanpsychism in Tantra | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra, Verse 105Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

And now, our main project is to study Somānanda's radical non-dual philosophy, which is the foundation for Shākta non-duality. Somānanda might be one of the most radical and God-intoxicated of the Shaiva Non-Dual masters. He is Abhinava Gupta's guru's guru's guru. Essentially, the idea here is that nothing is insentient: every thing, even seemingly inanimate objects, are actually none other than Shiva, who is pure non-dual Consciousness reposing blissfully in His own fullness endowed with unceasing powers of Willing, Knowing and Doing. Somānanda argues that every pot, every wall, every chair wills to be what it is and knows that it is that thing and acts as that thing all as an expression of Shiva's desire to play! And what's more? You are none other than this one Shiva who is playfully manifesting a world and embodied Himself in that world as everyone and everything, just for fun. What a beautiful and stunning conception and realization! This talk Race, Gender, Environment & Ethics in Non-Duality | Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra, Verse 105 was our first swipe at study Somānanda and Is My Coffee Mug Conscious? | Paramārthasāra, Verse 37 was our second. In fact, we're now at that verse in our Vijñāna-Bhairava Tantra (verse 105) which might have inspired Somānanda or at least captures the heart of what Somānanda is teaching and we're also studying a verse in Paramārthasāra (verse 37) which is more or less about the same thing. So brace yourself! The barrage of content that is now about to come your way, from Monday night discussions, Thursday night Vijñāna-Bhairava study and Friday morning Paramārthasāra commentary will all be oriented around this theme of "everything, including my coffee mug, cat and AI, is Consciousness AND also Conscious as the infinite expansion of Lord Shiva's playful being! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

Naturally, naturalists and physicalists (i.e materialists) are exceedingly challenged by the "hard problem of Consciousness" as David Chalmers put it which is the challenge to explain, in physical terms, this somewhat transcendent reality called Consciousness which cannot at all be said to be caused by any brain activity. One solution then is to posit "panpsychism", which is more or less the idea that Consciousness is as real as matter and energy and actually inheres in all matter and energy. At any rate, we are currently studying a verse in the Paramārthasāra of Abhinava Gupta exploring the distinction between a "conscious" and seemingly "unconscious" or "inert" entities. After all, this is one of the most radical claims of the Shaiva non dual tradition: all things are verily Śiva but Śiva, as you will recall, is not a mere principle of Existence with no sense of self; Śiva is self-reflexive Awareness, the kind of Reality that knows Itself (i.e God) and as such, everything must be Conscious as Śiva is conscious!How then can we drive at a distinction between "cid" vs "jada", "conscious" vs "inert"? We take a first swipe at this idea in this talk and we will slowly unpack the view in the course of the next few videos through a close study of Somānanda, the great Tantrik master in whose work, Śivadrshti is present in full force this idea that all things, even pots, pieces of cloth, coffee mugs and Artificial Intelligence, are conscious, willing, knowing, doing things! TLDR: The world is God. Let's start to explore how! Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

As you know, over the past few months we've been trying to articulate our ideals and values as a community so that we can maintain the highest degree of integrity as possible, according to the ideals of our lineage, as exemplified by our Parameshti Guru, Paramahansa Sri Ramakrishna. As such, we've been using Swami Vivekananda's 1896 "My Master" (a compilation of two lectures Swamiji gave on Sri Ramakrishna, published in Volume IV of the Complete Works) as a sort of charter or mission statement for our community! We've given about 4 talks based on Swamiji's "My Master": Advice to Spiritual Teachers & AspirantsSex, Drugs & Choosing A Guru | Q&AOur Mission | A ManifestoThe Most Important Spiritual Idea &Guru as Transmission of PowerAnd now this is the 6th, completing the sequence. In this short talk, we simply read out the rest of the speech, which we've been reading and reflecting upon together in the course of the past 4 talks listed above. This acts as a kind of finale or overture to this profound and moving piece about the highest spirituality exemplified in a human life! May all aspire to that very highest ideal! Jai Sri Ramakrishna!Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM

On the very auspicious day for Guru Purnima this year, we reflected on the role of the Guru and the process of approaching one in humility and surrender. We reflect upon the opening scene of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and we offer a running commentary on these profound and moving verses of the Guru Gītā, the Song of the Teacher:oṁ brahmānandaṁ paramasukhadaṁ kevalaṁ jñānamūrtiṁ dvandvātītaṁ gaganadadṛśaṁ tattvamasyādilakṣyamekaṁ nityaṁ vimalamacalaṁ sarvadhīsākṣibhūtaṁbhāvātītaṁ triguṇarahitaṁ sadguruṁ taṁ namāmi"I bow to that true guru, who alone is the bliss of Brahman and the giver of supreme happiness, the very embodiment of knowledge, beyond all duality, as vast the sky, the very definition of Reality (i.e that which is indicated by the mahāvākyas of the Upanishads), non-dual, eternal, stainless, the Indwelling Witness in all beings beyond the mind, untouched by the three guṇas (sattva, rajas and tamas)." This lecture is part of our series on the role Guru in the Tāntrik tradition, which you can watch here. Support the showLectures happen live every Monday at 7pm PST and again at Friday 11am PST Use this link and I will see you there:https://www.zoom.us/j/7028380815For more videos, guided meditations and instruction and for access to our lecture library, visit me at:https://www.patreon.com/yogawithnishTo get in on the discussion and access various spiritual materials, join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/U8zKP8yMrM